Today I just got my first smoker (Brinkman Pitmaster Delux). I’ve been charcoal grilling for a long time now and I am even a year round griller in the Pacific Northwest! Today I got my first smoker and am planning on doing ribs this weekend.

Any advice from experienced smokers would be appreciated as well as any helpful links. My smoker is the horizontal type with the off set charcoal/fire box.

Howdy SmokeyJ, welcome to the barbeque bible. There are a lot of folks here with experience and good information. Here are a few recent topics that cover smoking ribs. Please take time to look them over:

Welcome to the Board. Others here will be able to offer tips and pointers for some good smoked meats. I have a Brinkman also. I don’t know if they have added to their instructions but the smoker really needs to be burned and seasoned a lot before it is usable, or you will get very ugly burnt paint taste on your foods for a while. Build a fire in both the fire box and the smoking chamber and let it get real hot. Keep it hot for a couple of hours until you can’t smell paint any more. I would let it cool, clean out the smoking chamber and then give it a good coat of cooking oil.